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'So happy to be home': After living at shelter, Latessa Harris and her sons making it on their own

Latessa Harris

Latessa Harris and her son, Treaneal, 10, and Tyree, 8, stand in front of their neatly kept two-bedroom apartment in midtown Mobile. "Everything's so much better for us," she said. (Maj. Mark Brown/Salvation Army Coastal Alabama)

MOBILE, Alabama -- Last year at Christmastime, all Latessa Harris wanted was “a safe place to stay,” she said. “And I did get what I wanted for Christmas.”

She and her sons, Treaneal, 10, and Tyree, 8, were living at The Salvation Army Center for Women and Children at this time last year, for the second time in the same year. Little did she know then that, about five days before their 90-day limit, she would come home from her seasonal job at Target at Bel Air Mall only to find Trinitius Pickett, the CWC’s director, waiting for her with a form.

The Salvation Army had referred Harris to the Housing First program, meaning that she and her sons would move into their own clean, safe apartment with new furnishings and everything they’d need to make a home. “I was so happy, I went back to our room and started crying,” she said.

Harris was featured in the 2012 Neediest Families campaign, in which she told the story about how she, when she and the boys lived in public housing, a bullet zipped by her head in the night and hit the wall of her bedroom. She crawled into her boys’ bedroom to shield them. Someone was killed in the exchange of gunfire that night.

The Neediest Families campaign, in its 17th year, is a fundraising partnership between The Salvation Army and Alabama Media Group/Press-Register. Community members have given an estimated $3 million over the years to support operation of The Salvation Army's Center for Women and Children, where the area's neediest women and their children are housed and supported in their efforts to overcome medical, financial, personal and other problems, including homelessness, in some cases, such as Harris’s. The remainder of the campaign's income goes toward meeting urgent and critical needs of some of this area's Neediest Families on a daily basis.

Last year, Harris fit the criteria to be included in the Neediest Families campaign. After she moved out of public housing, she lived in a house for about a year, but when she lost her job working in retail, everything fell apart. She worked for a temporary agency because public assistance wouldn’t even pay her rent. And then the family “bounced around,” she said. Sometimes the boys would stay with her sister while she slept in her car—until she lost that because she couldn’t afford to make the payments. Meanwhile, she was terrified that the boys might be taken from her.

But last year, the planets seemed to align for Harris. After she was featured in the Press-Register, her co-workers at Target, who had no idea she was in such dire straits, raised money to help her and her sons. “They asked why I didn’t say anything,” she said — then presented a check to her on Christmas Eve.

Her boss also told her she would be kept on at Target. She was the only one in the clothing department who kept her seasonal position. “When no one else have me a chance, Target took me in,” she said. “I love working there. It’s a great company to work for.”

Harris works at Target part-time, during the day, and at night she works 20 hours a week cleaning the Franklin Primary Health Care building through Felder Services. Though she still doesn’t have a car, she can ride the bus or catch rides with friends to work.

Eventually, she hopes to move up to retail management. “I like retail,” she said. “I want to be happy when I get up in the morning and go to work.”

Neediest Families

Many families in Mobile and Baldwin counties struggle from day to day and throughout the year with health, financial, housing, employment and other concerns. When critical needs arise, The Salvation Army is ready to assist.

Now in its 17th year, the Neediest Families campaign has helped hundreds of families as a result of the generosity of the Gulf Coast community. Traditionally begun each Thanksgiving and continued through the New Year’s holiday, the campaign is starting early this year to raise awareness and funds for The Salvation Army’s major charity of the year.

The Neediest Families campaign has raised almost $3 million since its inception in 1996. Last year’s donations totaled $170,000, compared to $230,711 the year before. A goal of $300,000 has been set for this season.

Families are screened and selected by The Salvation Army to receive help.

Donations to date: $16,505

How to donate

To contribute to the Neediest Families campaign, go to NeediestFamilies.org to donate online; call 1-800-SAL ARMY (1-800-725-2769) to donate by credit card; or send your check or money order made out to The Salvation Army Neediest Families campaign, to 1009 Dauphin St., Mobile, AL 36604. Donors of $100 or more are named in the newspaper and online at AL.com, unless they request anonymity.

Treaneal and Tyree attend Spencer-Westlawn Elementary School and are on the A/B honor roll again. “Their grades are back up, and they’re happy to be back in school with their friends,” Harris said. They catch the bus right outside the front door. “Everything is so much better for us,” she said. “The boys are so happy to be home.”

In her neatly decorated two-bedroom, one-bath apartment, Harris’s pride shows everywhere. The front door leads into a living room decorated in black, white and red, with a black leather couch and chair, a tile floor, red lamps on end tables and matching curtains and zebra prints hanging on the walls. The boys, who are big University of Alabama fans, “have all their Alabama stuff in their room,” she said.

Housing First bought the living room furniture (except for the TV, which was the only thing she had left from her home) as well as beds and a breakfast table and chairs. “They took me to Walmart and bought everything we needed to move in,” she said.

“After everything we went through, the outcome was better than what we ever came from,” she said.

"Last year, the only thing I wanted was a safe place to stay," said Latessa Harris. "I did get what I wanted for Christmas." (Maj. Mark Brown/Salvation Army Coastal Alabama)

Harris pays 20 percent of her income to live in the apartment, which is considered transitional housing. Her housing manager visits often and “tries to help me figure out how to better myself,” she said. After two years in the program, she will move into permanent housing.

Both boys want to attend the University of Alabama and play football. “My oldest son says when he becomes a football player, he’s going to buy me a house,” she said, looking at him lovingly.

When asked if there was anything she needed, Harris couldn’t think of a thing. “This Christmas, I’m working two jobs. I’m so proud of my boys. Through it all, they never complained. And we’ll have a place of our own to lay down on Christmas night.”

Hearing Harris tell her story is music to the ears of Maj. Mark Brown, area commander of The Salvation Army of Coastal Alabama. “She doesn’t need anything,” he said. “That says so much about her honesty, her integrity, her trustworthiness. That makes me incredibly proud of her, our program and our employees. That shows it’s working.”

“I appreciate everything The Salvation Army did for me,” she said. “Without them, I couldn’t have gotten into the Housing First program, because you have to be referred. I’m still a work in progress, but I’m making it, and we’re doing good.”

To contribute to the Neediest Families campaign, go to NeediestFamilies.org to donate online; call 1-800-SAL ARMY (1-800-725-2769) to donate by credit card; or send your check or money order made out to The Salvation Army Neediest Families campaign, to 1009 Dauphin St., Mobile, AL 36604. Donors of $100 or more are named in the newspaper and online at AL.com, unless they request anonymity.